s u m m e r g u i d e 2 0 1 7 1 6 1 high SeaS nicoLe Barna courtes saint osePtH s coLLege A Journey of Discovery The Floating Opera y PatriCia PierCe eri S n the a heera may be a amiliar sight on casco Bay, but did you kno she leads a secret li e moonlighting as a sea aring E ach summer, crowds flock to Maine State Pier to admire Bagheera and Wendameen, the handsome, two- masted wooden schooners moored here. While many embark on day sails with Portland Schooner Company, few know that Bagheera, a 72-foot schooner designed by John Alden in 1924 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, dou- bles as a floating university classroom. When the winds and schedule are favor- able, she becomes the temporary home and lab for students and professors from Saint Joseph’s College’s Environmental Science Semester, carrying the crew Downeast for two weeks to study climate change and gla- cial geology, field methods, marine ecolo- gy, and oceanography. One bright, blustery morning, our team of students, scientists, and crew de- parts Portland Harbor and crosses Hussey Sound, passing far beyond the waters where the day-sailing tours travel. Most of the stu- dents have never set foot on a sailboat deck before. Today we begin a two-week journey to the shores of Vinalhaven. Captain Sean Canniff scans the sea, the deck, the sails, the passengers, the horizon. “Ready about!” he shouts. “Ready about!” crewmember Lindsay shouts back. “Helm’s a-lee,” Capt. Canniff calls, turn- ing the wheel. Sails deflate as the bow of the black-hulled beauty crosses the wind. With a thunderous pop, the boom swings over to starboard and everyone shifts to a stable position as the port gunwale is lifted high above the water. With the islands behind us, we head eastward into the vast ocean for our first research stop. Cruising north along the coast, Capt. Canniff glances at the Garmin plotter. t